


coffee shops and cafes

by Skyuni123



Series: all aboard the brokenwood au train choo choo [1]
Category: The Brokenwood Mysteries
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M, First Meetings, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 08:34:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21407284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyuni123/pseuds/Skyuni123
Summary: kristen and sam have a little bit of history.they meet, in a cafe!
Relationships: Sam Breen/Kristen Simms
Series: all aboard the brokenwood au train choo choo [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1543273
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	coffee shops and cafes

**Author's Note:**

> crossposting these from my sideblog on tumblr c-ren-it-e. i figured they should finally see the light of ao3 day.

"Black coffee. Please.” She might have been fed-up, probably looked like a complete wreck, and had a headache pounding at her temples, but she wouldn’t stop being polite because of her bad mood. The guy behind the counter didn’t deserve it.**  
**

“Sure thing.” The Maori man grinned easily. “Bad day?” There was no come-on in it, nothing malicious, just the simple reply of a man who had no other customers to deal with and a lot of time on his hands.

“Not my best.”

“It’s on the house then,” The man decided, and went to make it. “Since your day’s going badly.”

“I mean, you don’t-” Why was he so nice to her? No-one had the right to be so cheerful at 9am on a Tuesday.

“It’s all good.” He started pressing dials on the coffee machine. “My boss isn’t around and I don’t think he’d mind even if he was.”

“Is your boss not interested in making a profit then?”

The man shrugged. “Nah. He’s more of a people person. Sometimes I think he just opened the shop so he could talk to people.”

“Sounds like an intriguing man.” Kristen pulled out her wallet, intent on leaving a few dollars in the tip jar, even if he wouldn’t let her pay. “I’m Kristen.”

He raised his eyebrows at her and smiled. It was a good smile, one that slowly helped to drag her out of her funk. “Jared.”

“I couldn’t help but notice… this place is empty.” She put the events of the night before out of her mind. There was no need to bring a stranger into her bad mood.

“Yeah. Starbucks down the street. Try running an independent coffee shop when capitalists are sucking away all the business.” Jared snorted.

“So that’s why you’re giving away free coffees, then? Destroying capitalism?” It was an admirable goal, although completely unrealistic.

She could feel her mood lifting. It was a nice change. Coming into this shop for the first time had been a good idea.

“Nah, I just like you.” He winked and handed the cup over.

“You’re too kind.” Coffee. Thank god. Her first sip cleared her head almost immediately and she sighed in relief. “You’re a lifesaver. Honestly.”

“I aim to please.” Jared turned the coffee machine off and leaned over the counter. “So, do-”

“Yeah, yeah, could you two take the flirting outside?” Another voice, unspeakably male and more than a little bit dry, interrupted him. The owner of the voice wasn’t in eye-shot.

Jared rolled his eyes. “Sorry.”

“Your boss?” They hadn’t been flirting. It wasn’t the time. She wasn’t ready for that. She sipped at her coffee and sighed.

“Mike would never let him run the place. Ever.” Jared lowered his voice, “he’s great, but a mess. Y’know.”

“I can hear you.” The disembodied voice continued, “And I reject that.”

“His girlfriend left him yesterday and he’s wallowing.” Jared explained, rolling his eyes again. “Bro, stop scaring away the only customer we’ve had all day.”

“Just because I’m telling the truth doesn’t mean -” The man emerged from the back of the store. He was ginger, and unfortunately very recognisable. “Kristen?”

“Sam?”

“Shit, you two don’t know each other, do you?” Jared looked between them, mildly panicked, “If this is some weird movie thing where you dumped each other yesterday I might just leave and let you sort it out.”

“We went to the same high school,” Kristen said, at the exact same time as Breen. They both flinched.

Well. That was certainly a meet-cute if she’d ever seen one. Awkward.

“Yeah, that whole ‘talking at the same time’ thing’s got me convinced that we’ve been transported into a movie. I’ll leave you to it.” Jared nodded uncomfortably and disappeared out the back of the store.

“So… how’ve you been?” Breen settled against the other side of the counter with some discomfort.

“Getting into a lot of debt. You?” Seven years, and all he had to open with was that. Nice.

“I know the feeling. Turn’s out that the film industry’s not exactly full of jobs, even in New Zealand.”

“You try finding work with an English degree.”

He laughed, unselfconsciously. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Did you actually get dumped yesterday?” She didn’t know why she asked. It wasn’t very like her to pry like that.

“Yeah. Why?”

“I got dumped yesterday too.” It was still hard to say, hard to even think about. That relationship had lasted five years, and five years was a long time.

“Isn’t that funny. Want to sit?” He gestured over at one of the tables in the entirely-empty cafe.

“Surely that’d disrupt your customer base.” She teased.

The cafe was so empty that she’d have sworn she saw a faint layer of dust across some of the tables.

“Doubt it. Sometimes I think Mike just keeps the tables here for show.”

Who was this mysterious ‘Mike’? He was obviously their boss, but the man seemed more like an enigma than anything real. “Tell you what, I’ll hang around if you promise not to repeat what happened seven years ago.”

She could have sworn that his face went a little pink at the edges.

“For the record, that wasn’t my fault.”

“Sure it wasn’t.”

**Author's Note:**

> hit me up on my actual [ tumblr ](http://eph-em-era.tumblr.com)


End file.
